Now it’s casually jumping up and over hindrances that would depart many people huffing and puffing.

The corporate demonstrated Atlas’ newly discovered hops in a video revealed this morning:

It begins with a lil’ leap over a log sooner than Atlas bounds its means proper up a suite of 40 cm (1.three feet) steps.

While simply getting a massive, heavy robot to stroll on two toes is a feat few firms have cracked, there’s an entire set of latest demanding situations at play right here. Getting Atlas’ limbs up and over the step, whilst correctly moving the burden and momentum onto one foot with out the entire thing face-planting… it’s an advanced set of mechanics. Notice the sideways leaps, and — in particular within the sluggish movement minimize on the Nine-second mark — the way in which the hips/toes appear to attitude somewhat to compensate.

(For the curious: Atlas weighs round 180 lbs, as of the ultimate time Boston Dynamics disclosed the numbers.)

At this level, we’ve long past from “Haha, neat, look at the funny robot running like a human,” to “I’m pretty sure that robot could beat me up.”

Wondering what the corporate is up to right here? We talked with Boston Dynamics’ founder Marc Raibert concerning the hows and whys a couple of months again at our robotics match in Berkeley. The video is underneath: